Intelligence, discretion,
tact,-- these are probably his traits; not force of character and
independence.
The same day I took the rail from the Little Street station for
MANCHESTER,
to meet Bennoch, who had asked me thither to dine with him. I had never
visited Manchester before, though now so long resident within twenty
miles of it; neither is it particularly worth visiting, unless for the
sake of its factories, which I did not go to see. It is a dingy and
heavy town, with very much the aspect of Liverpool, being, like the
latter, built almost entirely within the present century. I stopped at
the Albion Hotel, and, as Bennoch was out, I walked forth to view the
city, and made only such observations as are recorded above. Opposite
the hotel stands the Infirmary,--a very large edifice, which, when
erected, was on the outskirts, or perhaps in the rural suburbs, of the
town, but it is now almost in its centre. In the enclosed space before
it stands the statue of Peel, and sits a statue of Dr. Dalton, the
celebrated chemist, who was a native of Manchester.
Returning to the hotel, I sat down in the room where we were to dine, and
in due time Bennoch made his appearance, with the same glow and friendly
warmth in his face that I had left burning there when we parted in
London. If this man has not a heart, then no man ever had. I like him
inexpressibly for his heart and for his intellect, and for his flesh and
blood; and if he has faults, I do not know them, nor care to know them,
nor value him the less if I did know them.
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